conditions,” Ol’ Bill amended softly.
“With conditions?” she parroted.
“Girl, I knew you was a cook, but he must want your services mighty bad. Ain’t nobody but a fool with money to burn gonna top that bid. You and he go back a long way, don’t cha?”
She could feel her cheeks heating now. “We don’t go back at all. And don’t you dare print a word about this in the Gazette. And don’t you dare tell my mother about this either.”
Ol’Bill chuckled. “She’s psychic, remember. She predicted you’d be born in a special way, just didn’t see how.”
“Don’t you dare go into the particulars of that event either.”
“What I’m trying to say is everybody in town already knows about you and Matt.”
“Did he write that love letter?”
Ol’ Bill winked at her. “He’s never been one to declare himself. But don’t you worry none. It’ll all come out in the wash, sweetheart.”
He had written it.
Well, that didn’t give him rights over her!
“It certainly will come out in the wash,” she said as she lifted the wooden door to her booth, slammed it down so hard the whole booth shook and strode over to the display that offered her cooking services. Sure enough, Matt’s name was a sloppy swirling scrawl of livid black ink ten times bigger than the other neatly written names. In addition, he’d penned, “Five thousand dollars. With conditions.”
As she read the enormous black letters and reread that incredible figure, the home team struck a home run, and the crowd in the bleachers began to stomp and roar again. The sound was so deafening, she covered her ears.
Suddenly Matt was beside her. When he put his arms protectively around her, she began to quiver even as she pushed him away.
“How could you bid five thousand dollars for a few meals? Just what do you think you’re doing?”
“Going after what I want.” He slid his checkbook out of his hip pocket and uncapped his pen. “After all, it’s for a cause we both believe in.” His bold gaze drifted from her mouth to her neck.
She gasped, afraid they’d drift lower to her breasts. They didn’t. Instead he leaned over the table and wrote her a check for five thousand dollars.
After a moment or two she caught her breath.
He handed her the crisp blue check, which was indeed made out for five thousand dollars.
“Don’t play games, Harper. What do you mean by…er…conditions?”
“I want breakfast in bed every morning up until the Spring Fling. I’m not picky when it comes to food. Just geography, which is you serving me breakfast in my bed.”
“What?”
“Don’t look so shocked. Villains like me always prefer to lure the damsels they want to their den to seduce them.”
She pushed her glasses higher up the bridge of her nose. “I will not sleep with you! Or kiss you! Or…or…”
“Oh, and wear your hair down, darlin’, and lose the glasses. You’re much prettier without them—as I’m sure you know.”
“I’m blind as a bat without my glasses.”
“Your mother bought you contacts years ago.”
“You have no right to know that.”
“Everybody in Red Rock knows everything, darlin’. It’s part of the town’s charm. Lose the glasses.”
She was wondering what to do when her friend Annie, who happened to work at the bank Matt’s check had been drawn on, walked by again.
“Oh, Annie!” she cried, afraid to be alone with Matt for another second.
Annie turned and smiled. She was pretty and tall. Her lush red hair was down tonight, and her brown eyes were warm and friendly as she made her way toward them.
“I heard you two were working together on this,” she said, looking pleased. “You did a great job. Everybody’s so happy you finally made up.”
“We have not made up,” Jane said.
“Oh. I thought—”
“Yes, we have,” Matt said.
Jane handed her the check. “Is this good or not?”
Annie looked up at Matt, her sweet face uncertain now.
He nodded.
“As good as gold,” Annie replied sweetly.
“I guess that settles it then,” Matt said. With the swiftness of a swooping hawk, he grabbed her hand. “You’re mine, darlin’.” His green eyes darkened possessively as he pulled her closer.
Usually she applauded people who were clear about their goals, but he was too much, and she was drowning.
“Starting tomorrow,” he persisted, “I want breakfast in bed every day until the Spring Fling.”
She yanked her hand free. Speechless and quivering from too many overwrought emotions, she turned to walk away.
“And, oh, Jane—”
She whirled. “What else?” she demanded in a contemptuous breath.
His fathomless eyes were boring holes into her. “I can’t wait,” he purred, “until tomorrow morning.”
Her nerves leaped. Her heart beat faster. She was slow to answer, but when she did, her mouth curved seductively and she could see she’d surprised him.
“Neither can I,” she whispered. “You’re in for quite a surprise.”
“Good. It’s about time you decided you have a right to have some fun. We’d be good together.”
Chapter 7
Jane got to Matt’s ancient, blue trailer about 7:00 a.m. It had rained during the night, but the sun was up and bathing the trees and his horrendously ostentatious, three-story mansion with a magical sparkling peach light.
For a moment she stared at the tasteless house that was obviously being built to impress. The man was too much. There were gaudy turrets and too many rooflines, but doves were cooing around an enormous birdbath. A gray cat lurked underneath a bush nearby. Jane liked the trees and the quiet, and the way the woodsy, warm air smelled sweetly of cedar. She liked the fact that he had a cat, too.
What was she thinking, coming here? Well, there was nothing for it but to deal with Mr. Harper as fast as possible so she could check him off her to-do list and get herself safely to work.
Quickly she got out of her Honda. With an apprehensive smile, she picked up the breakfast tray stacked with covered plates she’d prepared and picked her way across the rocky ground to his trailer.
Scared as she was at facing the devil in his lair, she couldn’t help noting that except for the trailer and the house, it really was pretty out here. Dewdrops sparkled on the leaves and turned a spiderweb into a carelessly tossed diamond necklace clinging to the branches of the live oak that shaded his trailer.
Curious, the gray cat followed her and leaped onto a large cardboard box with a picture of a window air-conditioning unit on it. The big box looked too wide to go through the door. Maybe that’s why it had been shoved to the side of a rickety set of stairs.
When she placed her foot onto his first flimsy step, the wood sagged, and her heart began to beat with alarm. The trailer was dark and silent and uninviting. Hesitantly, she lifted her hand to the door, but before she could knock, a deep, sleep-slurred voice that made her nerves vibrate